The americanization of European higher education and research

This chapter aims to present changes in the structure of research and higher education in europe and to investigate potential explanations for the strong increase in its international orientation. The decision to study or to do research in either the home country market or the international market depends on cost and benefits, determined by the size of the market, communication costs, the transferability of knowledge between countries, and financial regulations. To analyze the developments in european higher education and research, the chapter compares the developments in research in several european countries in different research areas using long time series. It includes a theoretical exposition to explain the decision to adopt the american standard in research. This framework explains why the adoption of the superior american standard goes faster in some countries than in others. The introduction of english as the lingua franca of universities, particularly in the big four continental countries, is a prerequisite to increase european competitiveness.